Naruto Story Idea's and Challenges
by whitespiderlilly
Summary: These are just some idea's and challenges for anyone to adopt. No new updates, just some spell checking.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto Story Idea #1

Eventual SasuNaru (optional)

In this Naruto is somewhat smart. Not a genius, but not dumb either.

When in Wave, after the battle on the bridge, Naruto comes up with the idea to heal Sasuke using Kyuubi's chakra (after all, Kyuubi's chakra heals Naruto all the time, most likely in small amounts. If it can heal him, why not other people as well?). Nothing much comes from this but over time Sasuke begins to unconsciously develop a crush on Naruto, though he doesn't realize he likes him until years later.

Nothing changes much from the series but Sakura starts taking her training a bit more seriously after realizing how far ahead of her Naruto and Sasuke are, Sasuke starts acting a smidgen friendlier towards Naruto and their competitions slowly begin to go from trying to get one over the other (less friendly) to pushing each other to their limits (more friendly) and Naruto slowly gets better at chakra control from taking every chance he could to heal any cuts and scratches his teammates get. The actual big changes begin to start after the second part of the chunin exam.

Whether or not Sasuke leaves the village is optional.

(just to let you know, I haven't read a lot of the manga or seen the anime, so forgive me if some of the scenes are wrong)

Naruto stared at Sasuke helplessly. After all that had happened on the bridge, Naruto felt as though he had done nothing. He didn't help Sasuke in his fight with Haku; he probably just got in the way. He was too slow and got taken down so quickly and Sasuke had to protect him while fighting Haku, which only slowed him down. If Haku hadn't been so nice, Sasuke really _would_ have died. And when Naruto had the chance to kill Haku, he hesitated and Kakashi-sensei wound up killing him instead. The only thing useful Naruto had done was intimidate the bandits and even that didn't fully work until Inari and the villagers came.

The blond tore his eyes away from the pin-cushioned Uchiha that was leaning heavily against an (in Naruto's opinion) overly cheerful Sakura and instead looked down at his feet. After a second he noticed the strange absence of needles poking out of him. He wasn't even feeling pain where the needles were, just soreness in his muscles and a sharp tingling all over his body from using Kyuubi's chakra. But even if the needles were gone, he still should have been bleeding and in pain so why-?

'_Oh.' _He thought as it clicked in his head. When he was overcome with Kyuubi's power, the demon chakra must have pushed the needles out and healed the holes. He rubbed a hand against his arm. No pain. He was completely healed.

A pained grunt caught his attention and he looked up at his male teammate. He wasn't leaning on Sakura as heavily as he was before, obviously trying to walk on his own. His exhaustion and the needles in his legs made that difficult, though. Naruto wanted to pull them out but knew it would do more harm than good. Sasuke would start bleeding out and unless Kakashi-sensei had a lot of bandages they would have no way to heal him…

A light bulb went off and an idea popped up in his head. Kyuubi's chakra could heal. If Naruto used a small amount and controlled it _really well,_ maybe he could heal Sasuke! He could be useful for something. It was a gamble and he was afraid that he might hurt Sasuke even more but-!

"Hey Sasuke!" He called as he made his way over to his teammate. "Sit down would ya, there's something I want to try out."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow but after a few moments he gingerly sat down, probably silently glad to get off his legs. Sakura and Kakashi gave Naruto confused glances.

"I'm going to try and heal you, okay, but if it starts hurting _say so_!" He stared Sasuke strait in the eyes as he said this, trying to show how serious he was. "I need you to tell me if it hurts too much so I can stop or else I might do permanent damage."

Sasuke was giving him a wary look now. "Have you ever tried this out? How do I know you won't kill me or something?"

"I have done this before but only on myself. Now shut up and let me concentrate."

As they were talking Naruto had been gathering small amounts of Kyuubi's chakra and concentrating it into his hands. He had even, out of sight of the others, cut his palm and he could feel Kyuubi's chakra heal the cut. After he told Sasuke to shut up, Naruto eased out one of the senbon, blood coating the thin piece of wood. Before the needle was even fully out, Naruto had started pushing small amounts of Kyuubi's chakra in to wound. Sasuke frowned in discomfort, but he didn't say anything and Naruto didn't notice, his concentration solely on what he was doing. The blood flow was decreasing and his teammate had yet to say anything (like he would have noticed anyway) which meant that it was working but it took much more concentration and effort than he thought. The chakra kept wanting to push out wildly in large amounts and Naruto's attention couldn't stray or else it would flare out, which would probably hurt Sasuke a great deal (as much as he didn't really like the bastard, he didn't want to cripple him). It took a great deal of effort to keep the chakra under control in a small, steady stream and focus it on one small spot. But it was working and in less than a minute the wound had completely closed up, leaving only a small, circular scar in its place.

Naruto poked the spot where the wound had been. "How does that feel, teme?"

He got a 'hn' in response. Typical Uchiha. But he didn't seem too uncomfortable about the poking (he was probably more annoyed that he was being poked at all) so the chakra must not have done too much, if any, damage.

Kakashi spoke up then from behind Naruto, startling him. "Well that's a neat little trick there Naruto, but before you continue, let's go somewhere less open. Would someone mind helping us back to Mr. Tazuna's house please?" looking around, Naruto finally noticed the villagers surrounding them. When had they gotten on the bridge? Had Naruto been that focused on Sasuke? Apparently so.

They only needed one person, though, for Kakashi to lean on. Naruto was able to walk on his own, even though he felt like he wanted to just collapse where he stood and sleep for a month. Sasuke refused to be carried and so leaned on Sakura as he walked.

When they got to Tazuna's house, Kakashi was immediately taken to his room to crash. Naruto followed Sasuke and Sakura to their room and Sakura gently set him down, not wanting to hurt the love of her life any more than he already was. She smiled at him.

"I'm going to get the first aid kit, okay?"

Naruto spoke up. "You don't have to do that Sakura."

He was going to say more but his female teammate cut him off, glaring at him. "What do you mean I don't have to do that? If I don't tend to his injuries, he's going to get an infection!"

"I wasn't finished." The blond said, too tired to raise his voice like he wanted to and gave her a stern look to make up for his quietness. "I can just heal him like I did on the bridge; that way we won't waste our resources."

Sakura looked like she was about to protest but surprisingly, Sasuke interrupted her. "Just let him do it Sakura."

The pink-haired girl looked like she wanted to argue (what if that idiot Naruto did something wrong and hurt her beloved?) but she eventually resigned herself and stood up.

"Alright. I'll go check on Kakashi-sensei or something." Then she walked out of the room, leaving the two boys alone. Naruto gave an inward sigh before sitting in front of his teammate and got started.

Slowly, one by one, Naruto removed the needles from Sasuke's legs and healed them. Then Sasuke's torso, then his arm's and neck. He even healed the cuts on the teme's face. As time went on it became more difficult for Naruto to control Kyuubi's chakra. Several times, Naruto had to take small breaks before continuing and at one point Sasuke asked him a question and Naruto gave an answer before going back to the difficult task of healing him. Kyuubi's chakra was violent and Naruto sucked at chakra control in general but having an incentive _not _to mess up (hurting someone other than himself, even if it was the teme) was really helpful in making him concentrate.

By the time Naruto finished healing up the last hole he was exhausted and knew that if he tried, he wouldn't be able to move. And he still had to do the teme's back too. But he was almost finished. He just had to keep his eyes open and not fall asleep. He was almost finished. He repeated that phrase in his head like a mantra.

"Hey teme." He said in a tired voice, not even looking up to see if he had the others attention. "I need you to turn around so I can get your back." He did so and had Naruto been more aware, he would have been surprised by the Uchiha's compliance.

He didn't know how long it took to heal the teme's back. It could have taken 10 minutes or a day. All Naruto knew was that the second he finished healing the last of the wounds he was out like a light.

When Naruto had first come up to him telling him to sit down so he could try something out, Sasuke was slightly curious what the blond dobe had in mind. He debated whether or not he should do what the other said but decided to humor him, just this once. It would get him off his legs, at any rate. When the dobe told him that he was essentially a ginny pig, he began to regret his decision.

He turned his attention to blonds' hands and was startled to see them softly glowing red. How did he not notice that? It must have been the exhaustion coming in and the adrenalin leaving his system. Sasuke was now very wary of what Naruto was about to do. He had never seen red chakra before, never even heard of it. There was the blue chakra that everyone had and the green chakra that medic-nins used, but never red. And Sasuke remembered the serious look Naruto had on his face when he told Sasuke to tell him if it hurt. Sasuke had a right to be wary.

Sasuke watched as Naruto pulled the needle out and then pushed the red chakra in. He tried not the shift in discomfort. Whenever a medic-nin healed him, he always felt soothed by the foreign chakra. Soothing was the only way to describe it really. This, however, felt like he was being poked by thousands of tiny pinheads that had been sitting by the fireplace too long. It didn't really hurt but it wasn't the most comfortable feeling either.

Looking at Naruto, he was surprised to see him concentrating so hard. Sasuke had never seen him so focused before (not even when his precious ramen was involved). He didn't even think the blond noticed when the villagers came onto the bridge and surrounded them, whooping and hollering in victory or weeping at the loss of the bridge builders that Zabuza had killed earlier.

Watching Naruto, Sasuke couldn't help but stare at his sharp blue eyes and think of how much of a nice color they were. This wasn't the first time that thought crossed his mind. On the last day of the Academy, when they were in each others face, glaring at each other, Sasuke had noticed how beautifully _blue _the boys eyes were; however, those thoughts, as well at the memory of the kiss, were quickly buried. Now they had resurfaced and Sasuke wondered just what color of blue they were.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt the warm chakra leave and Naruto poke him were the hole once was. "How does that feel, teme?"

"Hn."

Kakashi started talking and Naruto finally took notice of the people around them. Someone volunteered to support the jounin and someone tried to carry Sasuke but he vehemently refused. The walk to the house was slow going but he didn't mind, it gave him a chance to regain some of his strength.

When they got to the house, Sasuke gladly sat down. Sakura gave him goo-goo eyes and said she would get the first aid kit when Naruto spoke up. Before he could finish, their teammate started yelling at him, only to be interrupted by the blond. She looked like she was going to argue some more but Sasuke decided to intercept before he got a headache. Besides, that red chakra could probably do more than anything she could do.

She left and Naruto continued pulling out he needles and healing the holes. Sasuke took this chance to stare at Naruto's eyes again. They were too dark to be baby blue or sky blue or any colors like that, but too light to be ocean or sea blue. Not enough green for the other two anyway. They weren't navy blue or cobalt. He thought of all the blues he could remember and when he still couldn't come up with a proper name, Sasuke realized how unique the dead-lasts eyes were.

Tucking those thoughts away, Sasuke turned his attention back to the blond. He had finished his legs and now working on his torso. The older boy frowned slightly. Naruto had a slight sheen of sweat on his face and his hands were shaking somewhat. How tired was he? He then remembered (yeah, just now) that it took a great deal of control and concentration to heal someone with chakra. Naruto must have been using ten times more effort than normal because of his short attention span and his below average chakra control. Yet, he was still healing Sasuke. He could only imagine the drain Naruto must have been feeling.

Sasuke couldn't help but wonder 'Why?' Why was Naruto trying so hard? Why was he pushing himself? Sasuke was Naruto's rival, they didn't even get along, so _why?_

Awe and jealousy coursed through his veins. He was in awe that Naruto, the dead-last dobe, could keep going and jealous that the dead-last dobe was strong enough to keep going. Naruto had managed to keep fighting when Sasuke had "died." Naruto had enough chakra to make so many bunshins and then heal him. He walked on his own on the way to the house (what happened to the needles in Naruto?) and then he continued to patch up his teammate. Still, it was pretty amazing that the dope had the will power to keep going, even though it was obvious to Sasuke that he was exhausted.

Curiosity nagged at him, "Hey dobe?" he got a grunt and Naruto stopped what he was doing and looked at him with weary eyes. Bags were already starting to form underneath them. "How did you defeat Haku?"

It took a second for his question to register, but when it did, Naruto seemed to wilt and looked down.

"I didn't. Kakashi did." And with that he went back to work, an obvious dismissal. Some of the jealousy left. So Naruto hadn't been able to beat him either, huh? That meant he wasn't too far ahead of Sasuke.

As it got later and later, Sasuke started getting worried for his teammate (not that he would ever admit that). His hands had started shaking more, he blinked and rubbed his eyes a lot, and he took more and more breaks. When Naruto finished closing the last hole he just sat there for a moment, his face blank. Then he snapped out of it and turned to Sasuke, asking him to turn around. He did what he was told and turned his back to the other.

Thirty to forty-five minutes later, Sasuke felt the other male heal the last of the wounds and the red chakra, which had at this point felt like pinheads that been next to the fireplace _way_ too long, retreated for the final time. He heard a 'thump' behind him and Sasuke turned to see his teammate out cold.

The next day Kakashi woke up and after checking Naruto, assured his other two genin that, no, he wasn't going to die, he was just suffering from severe chakra exhaustion, and, yes, he was going to wake up eventually.

"By the way, Sasuke," Kakashi started, "how are you holding up? You're walking around, even after what happened yesterday." He looked at the Uchiha expectedly.

"Sasuke-kun is so strong, not letting his injuries keep him down." Sakura praised as she stared lovingly at him, hoping he'd acknowledge her for her words and see how much he loved her, admit his love and then they'd go off into the sunset and get married and have many pink haired Uchiha babies.

Sasuke mentally snorted in annoyance of the fan girl. Their teammate exhausted himself to heal him and she didn't even acknowledge him. It annoyed him that she was so proud of defending their client when all she did was stand there and hold a kunai while her teammates and sensei were fighting for their lives. Even though Naruto didn't help all that much in the fight, he at least bought Sasuke time and helped awaken his bloodline. He helped intimidate the remaining thugs while Sakura just stood there in fear and afterwards Naruto healed him while the most she could do was probably take the needles out, disinfect the wound and then bandage it up. Overall, Sasuke thought her useless and annoying.

"I'm doing fine." He answered. "Naruto healed me quite well, there's hardly a scratch left. He even healed the cuts on my face."

"The chakra he used was red, right? It didn't hurt at all?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Yes, it was red. It didn't hurt, it was just warm. Do you know something about it?"

The jounin rubbed his chin, "I have an idea but I would like to talk to Naruto first."

"Do you know when he's going to wake up?"

"Tomorrow maybe, or the day after. He is tired after all."

After that, the two left, leaving Kakashi to his thoughts. His gaze rested on the blond sleeping beside him. Even thought he didn't show it, he was curious and worried. He wondered about how Naruto was able to use the Kyuubi's chakra like that but worried about the effects it would cause on Naruto and whoever he used it on, like Sasuke. He was going to have to talk to Naruto about it later and inform the Hokage of this new development. And perhaps, come up with a cover story about the chakra for when, not if, when, people *coughSasukeandSakuracough* started asking questions.

Time skip – Chunin Exams. Naruto gets Orochimaru's seal on his stomach removed somehow sometime before Kakashi tries to contain the seal on Sasuke. Who, how, where and when the seal is removed is up to whoever takes this story idea (I haven't really read the manga or seen the anime, so I don't really know what happened). Naruto takes Sasuke aside and with Kyuubi's chakra removes, or burns off, the curse mark.

Sasuke stood across from Naruto. They were alone which Naruto was grateful for. He didn't want any interruptions from what he was about to do. His grip tightened around the piece of cloth in his hand.

He could feel the chakra emitting form the seal on Sasuke's shoulder. He wasn't all that good at sensing chakra, but even he could feel the dark-_evil, oozing, slimy_-chakra coming from his friend. Naruto didn't like it. At all. He wanted to remove it. He knew he couldn't, he didn't know enough about seals, but that didn't stop him from thinking about it. But then earlier he got an idea. It was incredibly risky and he almost dismissed it the moment he thought of it. But he couldn't let it go.

The idea was to force the snake man's chakra out. It would have to take a great deal of chakra and it would have to volatile too. Kyuubi had plenty of chakra to spare. Kyuubi's chakra was violent. The only problem Naruto had was the concentration it would have to take to keep it in one area and the effect it would have on Sasuke, whether it worked or not. Naruto had been spending the past couple of days practicing on focusing large amounts of the foxes chakra in one hand but he was still worried about hurting his teammate.

"Dobe." Sasuke said, breaking Naruto out of his thoughts. He sounded king of annoyed (more than usual, anyway). "Did you have a reason for bringing me here?"

"Eheh, sorry, I was just thinking."

"Try not to hurt yourself."

"Shut up, teme." He replied, but without his usual bite, something that did not go unnoticed by Sasuke. The slight smirk he had on his face faded. Naruto fidgeted and gripped the cloth again.

"There was something I wanted to try. I want to try and remove the seal on your neck."

Sasuke looked surprised, "Do you know anything about it?"

"Well, no."

"Then how do you plan to remove it?"

"I was thinking that if I forced enough red chakra in it, I could force out the chakra in the seal."

Sasuke nearly face palmed at that. Such a simple and basic plan, what more could he have expected from the dobe? "Dobe, this isn't just another wound like in Wave. I don't think you can just "heal" it."

"But seals only work if you put chakra in them, right? If I use the red chakra to force out the other chakra, then the seal won't work, right?"

Sasuke was silent for a good solid minute before he sighed. "Fine, we'll try it out. Go ahead." He pulled down his collar, showing the curse mark on the nape of his neck. Naruto fidgeted again, fiddling with the cloth in his hand.

"Um, Sasuke, I am going to warn you that this may hurt. A lot. So can you take off you shirt. I don't want your arm to get in the way. And could you put this in your mouth?" he held up the cloth.

The other boy raised an eyebrow. "Why do I need that in my mouth?"

Naruto sighed. "This cloth is for if, or when, you scream. I don't want people barging in wanting to see who was screaming bloody murder." He paused. "Actually, I want you to lay down for this. Just in case."

Sasuke looked like he was about to back out but then his face hardened in determination. He took off his shirt and grabbed the cloth, stuffing it into his mouth, and laid down on his back, looking at Naruto expectedly.

Naruto sat next the older boy, making sure he was in the best possible position to put his hand on the others seal. His hand hovered over Sasuke's shoulder as he closed his eyes and began gathering Kyuubi's chakra. More, more, still not enough, more, concentrate. When he had enough, he opened his eyes, put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and _pushed_.

When Naruto first told Sasuke his plan, the Uchiha was skeptical but when along with it. The dobes very basic theory was sound, Sasuke had read something similar to that before but he doubted the blond could actually do anything. The chakra required for something like that was great and even though Naruto was a powerhouse, he didn't think he would have the chakra necessary to do it. But it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot.

When Naruto told him that it would hurt and to gag himself, he briefly thought about not going through with it but then his stubbornness kicked in. Besides, he highly doubted that removing the seal would be painless, heck even trying to seal the seal probably would've hurt like a bitch. "No pain, no gain," right?

Sasuke would never admit it, but when Naruto's hand started glowing red, a small bit of him felt afraid. Before, in Wave, Naruto's hand glowed softly in red, just like a medic-nin's, only red instead of green. Now, though, his hand wasn't glowing red, it was _coating_ his hand. It was bubbling even!

Then Naruto's eyes opened and his hand shot out and then _pain, Pain PAIN! _Through the pain, a part of his brain heard a strange muffled sound which he would later realize was the sound of him screaming and he would be grateful to Naruto for the gag, as he was pretty sure that by the soreness of his throat he had been screaming very loudly. But now, the only thing he could thing about was that hot, burning _pain _in his shoulder. In Wave it felt like he was being poked by warm pinheads. _This _felt like someone had taken thousands of white hot kunai and were digging into his shoulder with them.

Even though it only lasted for about 3-5 seconds, it felt like an eternity to Sasuke and when the pain finally receded, the boy happily fell into the darkness of unconsciousness.

Time skip – After the preliminary round. Sasuke and Naruto continued. Sasuke will fight Gaara (probably a fight that's over used, but whatever) and Naruto will fight Neji (also a fight that's probably over used, but there's a reason for this one).

Sasuke and Kakashi are currently talking to the Hokage in his office about the curse mark that was put on Sasuke and its removal and Sasuke questions the other two about Naruto's red chakra. (I think the whole discussion sucks, but this _is _just a foundation for someone else to take and change into something they like)

"Sasuke, show him your shoulder," Kakashi instructed.

The genin pulled his shirt collar to the side showing a hand shaped burn mark where the curse mark had been but was now missing.

The Hokage stared at it with old eyes, puffing his pipe a bit, before letting out a sigh.

"And you say Naruto did this with his red chakra?"

"Yes sir." Kakashi replied. Sasuke just nodded.

"I see." He went silent and looked to be in deep thought. "If you haven't already, I would like for you to take Sasuke-kun to the hospital to take a look at that burn, just to see if it has caused damage we're not aware of. Later, I will summon you so I can have a friend of mine double check and make sure that the mark is gone. You may be dismissed."

Kakashi nodded and made to leave when, surprisingly, Sasuke spoke up.

"Wait."

Both adults looked at him curiously.

"Is there something you need Sasuke?" the Hokage asked politely.

"You know something about Naruto's red chakra, don't you?"

"You're curious about the red chakra?"

"Yes. I've been doing some research ever since I came back from Wave and I haven't found anything about red chakra. You two seem to know about it though. You're surprised that Naruto used it to heal. I would like some explanations."

The Hokage let out a puff of smoke. "Alright, I'll tell you, but know that not even Naruto knows this yet. There simply hasn't been a good time to tell him. That red chakra is Naruto's "bloodline" in a sense."

"Bloodline?"

"That's what we call it but we're uncertain. It's not in any records because only one other person besides Naruto had it. His mother.

"Now you must know that the red chakra is very vast and violent and very difficult to control. When Naruto's mother used it, it was only for large scale attacks and mass destruction. For Naruto to use it in small amounts and heal instead of harm is quite a feat."

"It is worrying though." Kakashi said. "The red chakra is naturally destructive and while Naruto's body may be especially adapted to it, it is unknown the effects it would have on others. Like you shoulder for instance. Which is why it's a good idea to get to the hospital."

Sasuke 'hned,' recognizing the obvious end to the conversation and left, Kakashi not far behind him.

Time skip – A day or two later. Naruto has already asked Kakashi to train him. Kakashi said no. Naruto goes off to think and train. Somehow or another, he comes up with the idea to sharpen his chakra to cut and uses leaves for practice. He also somehow finds out that when his clones pop he gets their memories. He makes a bunch of clones to cut the leaves. Kakashi is in the village at this time for some reason (the best reason I could come up with is him going to get a new Icha Icha book to read while he trains Sasuke) and sees Naruto training. He decides to take Naruto and train him with Sasuke.

Kakashi hid in a tree, eyes wide as he watched over a hundred Naruto's doing…something. He didn't know what it was, but Naruto was definitely trying hard and he must have been at it for a while. The blond was sweaty all over, his face was red from the sun, and he must have discarded his jacket long ago as all the Naruto's weren't wearing jackets but there was only one on the ground.

They all stopped and looked at whatever it was that was their hands (one hand was on top of the other so Kakashi couldn't see). A hundred Naruto's grinned widely before cheering, throwing up their hands and…leaves? Huh?

A pair close to him started talking and Kakashi leaned in to listen.

"Now what?"

"Let's try going bigger like a tree or someth-POOF!"

The field became covered in smoke as all the clones were dispelled. The smoke cleared and Kakashi could see the real Naruto standing proudly in the center, grinning from ear to ear. Then he started swaying and fell onto his hands and knees, panting. Kakashi began to rise form his crouched position on the branch, intending to take his youngest genin to the blonds house to rest, but stopped.

Naruto had gotten up and had his hands in his trademark kage bunshin seal. Kakashi crouched back down, wanting to see what the blond was planning to do now. There were many poofs as over a hundred Naruto's covered the field again. There was some bustle as they pared off into small groups of three or four, each group claiming a tree. Below Kakashi was a group of four clones.

"Alright, let's get started." One said.

"Right." The other three said and they all put their hands on the tree.

'_What are they doing?_' Kakashi thought.

A few seconds later the clones removed their hands and from where Kakashi was he could see that there were cuts in the tree he was sure hadn't been there before.

"Aww man."

"It's so small."

"Try and use more chakra or something."

"Let's try again."

And so they tried again. And again and again and again, each time at a different spot so they could compare their new cut with the previous one.

Kakashi couldn't help but stare in amazement. Naruto was doing wind chakra nature training _on his own_. And with his clones he was doing it at an astonishing rate too. Maybe…

Kakashi jumped down behind the four clones. "Yo."

All four jumped and yelled in surprise, swiveling around to look up at Kakashi with shocked faces. The commotion caused the other clones to stop and look, curious, but at seeing Kakashi they went back to work.

"Kakashi-sensei, you scared me!" Clone #1

"What are you doing here?" Clone #2

"Yeah, I thought you were training with Sasuke-teme." Clone #3

"Well, there was something I needed to get and when I was passing by I couldn't help but notice a little sea of Naruto's. Care to tell me what you're doing?"

"We're using chakra to cut stuff!" Clone #2

"Yeah, just in case we get to close to Neji. Punching him probably won't do much good but cutting him might." Clone #4

"And then once we're able to cut through an entire tree, we're going to go to Iruka-sensei and see if he has any long range jutsu." Clone #1

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "A long range jutsu?"

"Yeah, 'cause if we get too close to Neji he'll just use his eyes and block off our chakra and then we'll wind up like Hinata." Clone #3

"So we came up with the idea to learn a jutsu that you can use from a distance." Clone #4

"And by the way, earlier when we were thinking what I knew that could help me fight Neji, we realized that you didn't teach us squat!" Clone #1

Kakashi opened his mouth to argue but stopped. Naruto was…right. Whenever he taught his team, he would give Naruto and Sakura instructions and then leave them to their devices while he trained Sasuke. Guilt welled up in his chest but he put it aside.

Kakashi smiled at Naruto. "Naruto, do you know what chakra nature is?"

"Chakra nature?" Clone #3

"Umm…" Clone #2

"Uhhh…" Clone #4

"Sounds kinda familiar. Can you give us a hint?" Clone #1

"There are five of them. Our country is named after one of them."

"Hmmm…" All four said.

"Oh!" they looked at Clone #2. "Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, and Lightning right?"

Kakashi smiled. "That's correct. Those are the five chakra natures. Now, of the five, which chakra nature does Sasuke have?"

The Naruto's seemed to deflate at the sound of Sasuke's name.

"What do you mean his chakra nature?" Clone #3

Kakashi mentally sighed. "Well, Naruto, all chakra has a nature to it. For example, a person with a lightning chakra nature would be better at lighting style jutsus than they would with any of the other four. Someone with a water chakra nature would be better at water style jutsus. So, of the five chakra natures, which one do you think Sasuke has?"

"Fire, right? 'Cause he uses it all the time." Clone #1

"Yes, that is Sasuke's primary chakra nature."

"Primary?" Clone #4

"Does that mean you can have more than one chakra nature?" Clone #2

"Yes but we'll get to that later." He said, dismissing the subject. "What I want to know is if you know what your chakra nature is."

"I don't think so. How do find out?" Clone #4

Kakashi put his hand in his pouch. "With this piece of paper." He pulled out a small square of seemingly regular sheet of paper. The four Naruto's looked at him, confused. "All you have to do," he continued as he handed Clone #3 the paper, "is push some of your chakra into the paper. The paper is made from a special tree that absorbs chakra so when you push your chakra into the paper it will react. If you have a fire nature, the paper will burn. An earth nature will make it crumble away. Wind nature will make it tare. Water will make it wet and lightning will make it crinkle up. Now, let's see what you have."

The clone looked at the paper and concentrated, forcing his chakra into the paper. A second later, the paper ripped cleanly in two.

"And there you have it. You nature is wind." Kakashi smiled. _'Just like your father.'_

"Alright! Now what?" the four clones said in unison.

"Now you come with me. You're going to need proper training and cutting trees isn't going to help."

The four beamed at him and cheered.

"Woohoo! Alright, when do we go?"

He chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Dispel your clones and pack your bag to last a month. No ramen either, I will check. Come back as soon as you can."

"Sure thing!" there were four poofs as the clones dispelled and a second later the air was filled with yells and cheers before they all poofed away, leaving only one Naruto who was running to his jacket.

"I'll be back in a minute sensei!" And then he disappeared. Kakashi chuckled again.

Time skip – Shortly after the trip to Wave. Sasuke is still wondering what color blue Naruto's eyes are.

Sasuke was on his way home after doing some shopping. They had been in Wave country for a while (they had to stay for a week after the battle on the bridge because Kakashi wanted to make sure Naruto had fully recovered and because of the jounin's own laziness) and by the time Sasuke got home, all the food in the fridge and cabinets that could go bad, did, stinking up his entire apartment (1). He threw it all out, sprayed his apartment with an air sanitizer his nose could tolerate (he would never use Febreze or any of that other stuff, they smelled too much like the perfume his fan girls used and it gave him headaches (and Naruto wondered why he acted like an ass, he would too if he got headaches three times out of the week)), and then left to run some errands. Now he was heading home, dodging in and out of stores and alleys every now and then to avoid his over enthusiastic fan girls. Being away for long periods of time made them vicious.

Sasuke wasn't too far away from his apartment now. He was in an area of small shops and a few streets down was where the apartment complexes started. But just because he was almost home free it did not mean he let his guard down. The fan girls attack could come anywhere at any time. There! On the other side of the street were three of them, obviously searching for him. They hadn't spotted him yet, that was good, but he had to make a getaway before they saw him and alerted the rest of their kind of his location.

He quickly dodged into a small clothes store, not checking to see what it was called. Making sure he couldn't be seen if someone looked in the window, he glanced around. All around him were skirts and frilly tops and accessories. Great, he entered a store for girls. Hopefully none of his fans were in here.

Then something in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he tilted his head to get a better look. It was a skirt. But it wasn't the skirt that caught his eye, it was the color of the trim and flowers that did. Blue. Not just any blue, though, it was the same color as Naruto's eyes.

Putting the bags on his arm he removed the skirt from the hanging racket and went to the casher, hoping that whoever was there would know the color and not look at him funny. After all, he was a **_boy_** in a **_girls _**shop asking someone about a **_skirt_**.

He _really _hoped no one would catch word of this. He didn't want to know what his fan girls would think of this. What would his _team _say? He could already hear Naruto laughing at him.

The person at the casher was an old woman with grey hair, glasses, and a kind face. She looked up from her kitting when Sasuke approached and smiled.

"Is there anything I can do for you, young man?"

"Yes, please," that was his mother's teachings kicking in. "could you tell me what this color is?" he put the skirt on the counter and pointed at the trim and flowers.

"Such a pretty color. It's either azure or cerulean but they're both so similar it might as well be two names for the same color. It's a rare color, not seen very often in nature and you have to use other materials to make the dye. Not cheep at all. It was very popular several years ago because it was the same color as our beloved Yondaime's eyes."

Sasuke checked the price tag and, sure enough, the skirt was quite expensive. He hned. "Thank you. Have a nice day."

"You too, dear." She returned to her knitting and Sasuke put the skirt back where he found it before leaving the store (of course, not without making sure the coast was clear first) and walking home.

'_So,'_ he thought, _'Naruto has cerulean/azure eyes. A rare color that people would pay a good deal of money for, he was born with. And the Yondaime too, apparently. I need to see if I can find a picture of him and see if they really look like Naruto's.'_

(1) if you read the manga, in either the first or the second volume, it shows Sasuke's apartment. I don't know why he's not living in the Uchiha district, assuming it's still there. It was surprisingly messy, too.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto story idea # 2

Based off the fanfic "Captured" by bibochan

Eventual SasuNaru

ItaDei

Sasuke is a vampire. 800 years old, looks 17

Naruto is 16/17. Container of Kyuubi.

Itachi is a vampire as well. He was the one who turned Sasuke. They are still close. After some time Sasuke started wondering on his own. They check up on each other every now and then.

Deidara is also a vampire. He was turned by Itachi and is his lover.

Naruto and the other Konoha 12 are all chunin or jounin (Sai is the 12th member).

For two weeks, two people have been killed every night. One night, on his way home, Naruto meets a man named Sasuke. The two become friends and meet up with each other every night for months and Naruto begins to fall in love with Sasuke. Sasuke eventually tells Naruto that he's a vampire and that he was the reason people have been dying. Naruto is shocked at first but after some thinking, he accepts it. After some time, they talk and Sasuke turns Naruto into a vampire (don't care if Naruto suddenly dumps this decision on Sasuke or if Sasuke is the one who suggests it first).

Can go on to show Naruto's experience as a vampire and him adapting to it, as well as what other's think of Naruto's "disappearance" or him becoming a vampire (whether or not they find out Sasuke and/or Naruto are vampires is optional).

Naruto was walking through the unusually empty streets of Konoha. It was dark and moon was high in the sky. The blond let out a yawn as he stretched his arms, glad that his shift was over. Things had been so hectic lately.

Two weeks ago, people started dying. No, wait, rephrase that, people were being murdered. For the past two weeks, at least two people had been killed every night. There was no evidence of who the culprit was and the targets couldn't be predicted because none of the victims had anything in common, other than the fact that all of the blood had been drained from them.

After the first couple of days, most of the civilians started to avoid coming out at night and Tsunade, their Hokage, increased in-village security. So ninja, like Naruto, were pulling many late night shifts. Unfortunately, it seemed as though nothing worked. It had been two weeks now and still, people were dying every night. Not even ninja were safe. They had lost 7 chunin, 3 jounin and 2 ANBU. People were sad, scared and angry at losing so many people and their inability to do anything. Tension was high and unfortunately for the blond, he was taking the brunt of it. The counsel, some ninja and a majority of the civilians were angry at him, thinking that he, the Kyuubi container, had either killed the people himself or at least had some knowledge of what was going on. Blame the jinchuuriki, that's the way it always was and always will be. At least people were only glaring at him and whispering behind his back; it could be worse. Naruto imagined that obaa-chan was doing something to keep the people from hazing him on top of all the other stress and work she already had. He silently promised himself to get her a lot of sake when everything was done.

"Man, what a mess." Naruto mumbled as he rubbed one of his eyes.

"What's a mess?" a voice from behind him said.

"Gahh!" Naruto yelped in surprise and turned around, kunai already in hand. "What the hell?"

"Hn." The man, no, teen smirked. Naruto secretly admitted that whoever this guy was, was probably the most handsome guy he had ever seen, and in a village full of people with average or above average looks, that said something. Pale, unblemished skin, black hair so dark it had a blue tint, eyes that were like black holes and clothes that showed his slim but well-toned body. Oh yeah, this guy defiantly had a fan club.

Then the jerk opened his mouth.

"So, dobe, are you going to answer my question?"

He had a nice voice too- wait, what?

"Who are you calling a dobe, teme? Besides, shouldn't you know better than to sneak up on a ninja?"

"I wasn't sneaking up on you, you're just a dobe to not notice I was there. You still didn't tell me what the mess was."

Mess? What mes-oh!

"Just things that have been going on for the past two weeks. You're a civilian, right?"

"Traveler."

"Traveler huh? Well either way, I suggest you stay off the streets at night, there's a killer on the loose and I would hate for you to die."

"What's your name?"

The random question caught Naruto off guard. "Huh?"

"What's your name?"

"Uh, Naruto, but shouldn't you introduce yourself first before you ask someone their name?"

"My name's Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha."

"Nice to meet you!" Naruto beamed. He always did like meeting new people.

Sasuke gave a smirk/smile. "Same. How about we go for a walk."

"A walk? Why?"

"Well, considering that it's dangerous to walk alone at night and I would like to get to know you better, I don't see why not."

Naruto thought for a moment. It was late, he was tired and hungry and he didn't know this guy but he didn't want to leave him, what if something happened to him?

"Sure. Let's go."

Time skip- a few weeks later. Naruto and Sasuke have developed a routine where they meet at (insert place here (probably Ichiraku's)) at (insert time here (probably 9-ish)), unless Naruto has an extra late shift and then they meet at Naruto's apartment (Naruto had invited Sasuke there before). Usually every night they go on outings but sometimes they stay at Naruto's apartment. Right now they're going on an outing when they pass by Team 10.

"-and you should have seen the look on the old man's face. Of course, Neji was absolutely humiliated and I think Shino was kind of angry but I don't know, it's hard to tell with him-" Naruto babbled on, walking next to his mostly silent companion. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Naruto's chatter (and bright clothes) had caught the attention of Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino who had just walked out of their favorite BBQ hangout.

"Hey, Naruto!" Ino called out. Naruto and his black haired friend turned to see who it was. The girl jogged up to them, Shikamaru and Choji trailing behind.

"So, Naruto." Ino said in a sultry voice, batting her eyes at Sasuke. "Who's your new friend? I haven't seen him around before." She shifted a bit closer to the darker male.

Sasuke scoffed and looked away from the girl, ignoring her completely.

"Guys, this is Sasuke, he's a traveler that's staying here. Sasuke, these are my friends, Shikamaru," the lazy brunette gave a nod, "Choji," the teen paused in his eating long enough to give a cheerful hello, "and Ino." The blond girl said hi there and tilted her body to give Sasuke the best view of her chest.

"You know, if you need someone to show you around, I would be glad to help." Ino said, once again trying to flirt. Sasuke continued to ignore her. He couldn't stand fan girls, especially the slutty ones.

Shikamaru sighed and muttered 'troublesome.' "I'm surprised you're here. Most every other traveler has already left."

There was silence for a few moments before Sasuke finally replied, "True but Naruto is pleasant company."

Naruto blushed slightly, Shikamaru gave Sasuke a strange look, Choji continued to eat his chips and Ino was still trying to get the Uchiha's attention.

Ino spoke up again. "You know, if you want some pleasant company, we could always hang out. I know some good places we could go." She said suggestively. By now she was almost touching him and Naruto could tell Sasuke was getting annoyed.

"No thank you." Was all the pale teen said before he walked off.

"Bye guys, see you later." Naruto said cheerfully before he followed after the Uchiha.

"Man that guy was hot." Ino gushed.

"Not very friendly, though. What do you think Shikamaru?"

"Troublesome." Was his standard reply but on the inside, his brain was going a mile a minute. Sasuke's dialect sounded more like old Japanese than modern, which was strange. Not even the oldest and most remote places sounded like that and Sasuke looked too well bread and sophisticated to have come from a place like that anyway. And something about the man just seemed odd.

He pushed the thoughts aside. He doubted it was anything serious and it would take too much effort anyway.

Time skip - a few days or a week after Naruto first met Sasuke. Naruto has already shown Sasuke his apartment before.

Naruto walked into his apartment, shutting and locking the door behind him. He didn't bother with turning on the lights as he started taking his clothes off and leaving them where they happened to fall. Normally, he wasn't this messy but he had pulled an extra late shift and he was tired and when he went to his and Sasuke's meeting spot, the other teen wasn't there. Not surprising, it was late, and he highly doubted that Sasuke would stand there for hours waiting for him.

Naruto finished undressing, by now only in a pair of boxers, and headed to bed, fully intent on crawling underneath the covers, when he heard a wolf-whistle.

"The show's over I take it?" a familiar voice came from the darkness.

"What the-Sasuke?!" Naruto dove towards the light switch and flicked it on, artificial light illuminating his apartment. And sitting at his kitchen table like he owned the place was the aforementioned bastard, a smug smirk on his lips.

The blond gaped for a moment. "You-you bastard! What are you doing here? How did you get in? And, and - " Naruto blushed as realization hit him. "You Pervert! You watched me strip and you didn't say anything?!"

The teme smirked wider. "Well, I was going to say something but then you started 'striping' and who was I but to enjoy the show? I came here because you were late and I thought you would turn up here eventually. As to how I got in, well, let's just say I have my ways and leave it at that."

Naruto just gaped, angry and embarrassed, when a deep voice in the back of his mind chuckled. **_"There's more to this boy than meets the eye."_** And then the demon fell silent again, leaving Naruto confused.

"Earth to dobe. You still there?" at Sasuke's voice, Naruto focused back on reality and saw Sasuke standing in front of him. The blond blushed and stepped back in surprise.

"S-so, um," he couldn't believe it, he was stuttering! "Should I just get dressed so we could go out?" why did it suddenly sound like he was asking for a date or something?

Sasuke shook his head. "Why don't we just watch a movie or something?"

"Yeah, sure."

They popped a movie into Naruto's small, old fashioned TV and they sat down on the bed to watch. Somehow or another, Naruto later found himself being held to the others chest. Halfway through the movie, Naruto was sound asleep, snuggled against his companion's chest.

Sasuke gave a small smile, a real one, and he reached over the blond to the remote, stopping the movie and turning off the TV. For a while he just lay there, holding the sleeping blond teen, his friend. In all his years he never really had a friend before, his brother and brother-in-law didn't count. It made a nice warm feeling rise in his heart, a heart he had thought had gone cold long ago. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, Naruto's scent flooding his sensitive nose. A spicy, earthy smell and something that reminded him of the wind and underneath it all was the coppery scent of blood.

Truthfully, when Sasuke had first smelled Naruto that night, he had every intention of draining him of his blood, but when he actually saw the blond, he quickly changed his mind. He sensed in the blonds heart a rare purity, something he hadn't sensed in many, many years. Out of curiosity, he approached the teen; he wanted to know if the blond really was different from other humans.

When Naruto had turned to face him, Sasuke had to admit the blond was a looker. He wouldn't turn heads, at least not in the clothes he was wearing, and Sasuke had seen many more beautiful and handsome people in his travels, but Naruto was still an attractive person; everything about him was unique. His hair was a rare, vibrant shade of blond that Sasuke had seen only a handful of times, his skin was a nice tan, not too dark or light, an odd skin tone in a village full of pale people; on his cheeks were perfectly strait whisker-like marks, making Sasuke wonder if they were scars or birthmarks, and his eyes were a brilliant shade of blue that he had never seen anyone possess. He was a good looking man, even if he wasn't the brightest.

That night, Sasuke found out a lot about Naruto. He liked orange, if his clothes weren't anything to go by, he loved ramen, he talked a lot, was very friendly, was incredibly loyal to his village, used to prank a lot when he was a kid (and still does sometimes), and had no family besides his academy teacher, Iruka-sensei. Sasuke, surprisingly, didn't find his talking too annoying but he had to wonder about how good of a ninja the teen was if he was so open to strangers. But Sasuke didn't mind, even telling a few things about himself. When they parted ways, Naruto suggested that they meet up at Ichiraku's the next night and Sasuke agreed. And then the next night and the next.

Tonight was the first night that Naruto had not shown up. Sasuke had waited at the ramen stand for almost an hour before he left, coming to the conclusion that Naruto had to work late. So he went to the blonds apartment instead and waited there, a part of him wondering in amusement how much Naruto would freak out when he saw Sasuke there.

When the teen finally came home, Sasuke felt his body warm up slightly as he watched the blond undress, his eyes cutting through the darkness clearly. When Naruto realized he was there, Sasuke mentally laughed as the blond flipped out. He teased Naruto about the striping but as attractive as he was, Sasuke had no intention of jumping the blond. While he had jumped less attractive people in the past(1), Naruto was different; Naruto was a friend, the first friend he ever had really; therefore, he was off limits and Sasuke was alright with that.

I had absolutely no idea how to end that. Whatever, someone else can take it and improve it.

Time skip-a few months after Naruto and Sasuke meet.

Naruto shifted in bed before pulling the covers over his head to block out the sunlight peeking through the blinds. The blond knew he should be sleeping, he had an extra night shift tonight, but he couldn't sleep. He just had too many thoughts running through his head.

Sasuke was a vampire. That phrase kept repeating in his head. Sasuke was a vampire. He was the one who was killing people every night.

Naruto was torn. He felt horrible that so many people had died because of Sasuke. It saddened him whenever he saw the broken family and friends of one who had died. He felt angry that Sasuke was so uncaring of their pain and saw humans as nothing but food.

But Naruto also understood Sasuke's point of view and reasoning. He was over 800 years old; that would numb anyone's emotions. He understood why Sasuke had to kill them. He had to eat/drink their blood to survive. Humans weren't that different in a way; they killed animals for food just like Sasuke killed humans.

Naruto also understood what he meant when he said that vampires were a sort of population control for humans. Humans didn't have any natural predators, allowing them to breed and spread like crazy. Most animals didn't like the taste of humans and the ones that did were hunted or had gone extinct long ago.

Another thing Naruto guiltily agreed to was that humans were a somewhat cruel and greedy race. They drain everything they can out of their environment, not giving anything in return and not caring about the impact it would have on anyone or anything. They took advantage of those of their own kind for their own greed. Sasuke kept to himself and only killed to feed himself; he didn't kill excessively like humans did.

Naruto pulled the covers tighter over himself, burying his face into his pillow. He felt guilty for agreeing with Sasuke, it was like he was betraying his own kind. But he _understood_. He understood what it was like to be considered a monster. As a ninja, a jinchuuriki, he understood the necessity to kill. As a jinchuuriki, he was slapped in the face with the dark side of humanity every day since he was born and he knew that while people could be nice, they could also be the cruelest monsters in the world. He understood Sasuke's view of the world.

But he also felt like he was betraying his home. He know who the killer was, the murderer they had been looking for, for months. His loyalty to his village was telling him to turn Sasuke in but his heart wanted to keep Sasuke's secret safe. He didn't want Sasuke to get hurt and he didn't want to betray him.

_"_**_Hmph, you're still thinking about this kit? How foolish."_** Kyuubi's voice grumbled from the back of his mind.

"_I don't know what to do. I don't want to betray Sasuke but I don't want to betray my village either."_

The giant fox let out a deep, agitated sigh. **_"Foolish kit, why are you still so loyal to this place? And why do you think the boy told you something so important?" _**

Naruto paused. Why _did_ Sasuke tell him that? Why would he tell Naruto, a loyal ninja, a jinchuuriki, a human, such an important secret? Why? He thought of all the conversations they've had, looking for a clue.

Then he understood. After centuries alone, Sasuke just wanted a companion, someone who would accept him for who he was and what he was; someone who could chase away his loneliness. As someone who grew up in hate and loneliness, Naruto understood Sasuke's desire.

Naruto snuggled into his covers, beginning to finally drift off. Sasuke trusted him with a big secret and he was going to keep it.

Yeah, that kind of sucked. The next part I'm putting in sucks even more.

Time skip- a few months after Naruto and Sasuke met (the story began in late spring early summer). Sasuke is in Naruto's apartment waiting for him to show up so he could give him his birthday present.

Sasuke sat in Naruto's apartment, waiting for the blond. It was the dobe's birthday, or, as of two hours ago, _yesterday_ had been his birthday.

The two had somehow gotten on the subject of birthdays and when Sasuke asked Naruto when his birthday was, the blond got really quiet before replying 'October 10th' and then changed the subject with a little too much energy. Sasuke knew why he reacted the way he did. October 10th was the day the Kyuubi attacked the village and the day it was sealed. He could sense the foreign dark chakra inside Naruto. He knew Naruto was the Kyuubi container. Naturally, the subject of his birthday would make him uncomfortable.

Sasuke glanced at the clock on Naruto's bedside table. 2:04. Naruto was late, very late. Even on his extra late shifts he was home at around twelve, twelve thirty. Naruto was probably using his mission/shift as an excuse to hide or something.

At the sound of a particularly loud cheer, Sasuke looked outside and glared at all the windows with lights on, and there were quite a few. Sasuke sneered in distain.

Even at two in the morning many people were still out and about and awake, celebrating the defeat of Kyuubi, though most people were drunk by now. They had been celebrating all day- loud enough to prevent him from getting any sleep that day- and it continued into the night, moving from the streets to the houses as the sun went down. Drink, party and celebrate, that was all the 'Kyuubi festival' seemed to be about. Sasuke didn't condone the joy of Kyuubi's "defeat" but was also a day many people died, a day of mourning, something the humans seemed to have forgotten.

It also seemed to be 'make-the-Kyuubi-containers-life-a-living-hell' day. When Sasuke arrived at the blonds apartment, there were crude words, phrases, and rude and vulgar symbols spray panted all over the outside of the blonds apartment. The inside was untouched, though, due to the seals in the blonds apartment. Sasuke didn't know much about seals but he knew enough to know that they protected the apartment. Naruto explained them in detail but most of it went over Sasuke's head and Naruto simplified it, saying that the seals prevented anyone with ill intent from entering. Naruto may not be the smartest person out there but when it came to seals he was brilliant. No master, of course, but he was much better than most and given enough time and resources he would be a master.

Sasuke looked over at the dinner table. There were three boxes on it; one was plain blue with an orange stick-on bow. The other was light blue with orange cartoonish foxes on it with a large orange bow and a tag that said "From: Iruka, To: Naruto." The third box-which had been delivered via weasel summon-was green with a little sticker that said "From: The Sand Siblings, To: Naruto."

Naruto had told Sasuke about Iruka and introduced the two. Sasuke didn't really like any humans-except Naruto, of course- but he supposed Iruka was okay. Naruto lived in a village where the civilians hated him, the ninjas ignored him, his friends were more like friendly acquaintances (in Sasuke's mind anyway) and his sensei didn't seem to really care. Among them all Iruka cared for Naruto the most. He didn't ignore him, he didn't see him as the class dobe or the village idiot or the always happy moron, and he definitely didn't he him as the monster everyone said he was. Naruto was Iruka's family. Iruka was the only one who really cared for Naruto and was the only one to see Naruto drop his "happy idiot" mask. The only one besides Sasuke, anyway. Because of that, Sasuke thought Iruka was alright. As for the Sand Siblings, Sasuke had no idea who they were but he did remember Naruto saying he had a friend in Sand country.

Sasuke looked towards the door when it opened and Naruto stepped in. His shoulders sagged and his eyes were tired and Sasuke knew it wasn't because it was so late at night. When the blond noticed Sasuke he gave a weak smile. "Hey, Sasuke. What are you doing here at this time of night?"

"It's your birthday isn't it? At least, yesterday was. You're very late."

The blonde just stood there, surprised.

"Well, aren't you going to open your presents?" Sasuke pointed at the two boxes on the table.

Still shocked but curious, Naruto walked over and looked at the boxes. One was from Iruka, thought that was not surprised as he always gave him a birthday present. The other was blank but Naruto knew who it was from anyway and the last was from Gaara and his brother and sister. He picked up Iruka's first and opened the incredibly large box.

If anyone were to ask Naruto's friends what Naruto would want for his birthday, they would all reply 'coupons to Ichiraku.' If anyone were to ask Iruka what Naruto would want for his birthday, he would say 'books.'

And that's what he got Naruto. The box was filled with books. They were on all sorts of subjects from jutsu's to gardening to cooking. One was about how to make your own jutsu's, and another was about advanced seals; there was one about exotic plants and how to take care of them. There were other books as well, fiction, novels and manga.

Naruto smiled. It was like this every year ever since he and Iruka had gotten close. Naruto loved to read but because he spent most of his money on living expenses and such he rarely bought any because they were too expensive, at least for him they were. The villagers tended to double or triple the prices of anything he tried to buy so a book that would be fairly cheap to most people would be expensive for him. The books in Konoha anyway; in other places he bought them at a normal price and in Suna he even got them at a discount.

He moved on to the present from the sand siblings. In it were actually three separate gifts, one from each sibling. Gaara had given him a coupon to Suna's bookstore, a book on plants in Suna and packets of different seeds, obviously native to Suna. Kankaro had given him a book on foods and desserts of Suna. Finally, Timari had given him a few scrolls on wind style jutsu's (which Naruto always thanked her for; wind style jutsu's were nearly impossible to find in the land of fire as only a handful of people had wind chakra).

Naruto finally moved on to the last box and picked it up, aware that Sasuke was staring at him (as if he hadn't been the entire time). It was about a foot long, give or take a few inches, 5 inches wide and about 5 inches tall. Naruto removed the wrapping and bow and lifted the lid. His blue eyes widened at the contents.

Inside were two objects, one on top of the other. The one on top was a book. It was small and portable, ninja-size as people called it. The front of the book read "Tessenjutsu.(2)" What really caught his attention, though, was the tessen(3) underneath. He moved the book aside and picked the tessen up, unfolding it. The metal ribs felt cool against his hand and he traced the edge with awe. The metal was painted white and an azure blue outlined the edge. The fan part was also white with azure blue flowers decorating it. It was 9 to 10 inches long and when folded it was 2 inches wide.

Naruto just stood there, his mouth wide open.

"Sa-Sasuke! You – it's – This-this is a good quality fan, do you know how many ninja, especially wind and weapon users, would kill to get something like this? How on earth did you get this?"

"I come from an old family. An old, rich family. I had more than enough money and it was all just sitting there gathering dust so I used it."

The stunned blond plopped down next to Sasuke on the bed, the fan held gently in his hands. He needed a moment to take it all in. Sasuke celebrating his birthday (kinda), Sasuke getting him a gift, Sasuke getting him a very _expensive_ gift.

It was also the first time Sasuke said anything about his family, other than that he had a brother and brother-in-law. It did kind of explain a few things, though, like how he was able to stay in Konohas inns and hotels for so long. Unless he was lying and he got the money through illegal means, but Naruto doubted that; Sasuke hadn't lied to him before why should he start now?

Naruto felt something twist in his stomach. Sasuke spent all his time with him in Konoha and so much money on a gift for him. He was honest and nice to Naruto, treating him like a normal person, not knowing about the demon he held inside him.

"Sasuke, why do you stay in Konoha? You've been here since spring and it's fall now. Why are still here?"

Sasuke stared at him emotionlessly. It was silent for a minute before he spoke.

"I stay because you're my friend."

Naruto felt torn. He didn't want to hide from Sasuke, but he didn't want to lose his best friend either.

"Sasuke, there's something I want to tell you."

The man nodded, giving him the go ahead.

"I – well, you've seen people celebrating the festival right? Do you know what it's about?"

"The defeat of the Kyuubi."

"Well it wasn't defeated. A human can't kill a demon, the best he could do was seal it away. The Yondaime sealed it inside a baby and…that baby was me." Naruto closed his eyes, waiting for the rejection.

"I already knew that."

Naruto snapped his eyes open. That…wasn't what he expected. "What? You knew?"

"It wasn't that hard to figure out. You were born on the 10th and the Kyuubi was defeated on the 10th, all the villagers hate you and call you monster, demon, etc. and it got worse as the day came closer, and they vandalized the outside of your apartment."

Naruto gaped for a few moments before he finally spoke. "You don't hate me?"

"No. You're you and Kyuubi's Kyuubi. It's that simple."

A huge smile blossomed on Naruto's face and he gave Sasuke the biggest hug he had ever received.

And that's it! Have fun.

(1) Think about it, Sasuke is over 800 years old! I highly doubt that anyone would still be a virgin after so many years.

(2) Tessenjutsu - the art of fighting with war fans

(3) Tessen - war fans. They're like Temari's fan, only smaller.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto story idea #3  
>Based off the idea of an older Naruto taking care of a younger Sasuke<br>**oxoxo**

Sasuke is 9. Just after Uchiha massacre. (Sasuke was 9 when that happened right?)

Naruto is 14/15. Chunin. Container of the Kyuubi (was sealed into Naruto at birth, as usual).

Brotherly Sasu/Naru

Naruto often subs for Iruka or acts as his assistant. Iruka sometimes goes to the Uchiha compound so he and Naruto could grade papers.

Iruka is still a brother/parental figure to Naruto.

Whether or not Naruto becomes Sasuke's jounin sensei is optional (on one hand, he wouldn't because he's still a fresh jounin and Kakashi has the sharingan so he could help Sasuke when his activates. On the other hand, it would save resources to have one jounin watch over Sasuke instead of two).

Naruto has been training Sasuke since he became his guardian. He continues training him even after Sasuke becomes a genin (and if Kakashi is his sensei, Naruto nags him excessively to train Sasuke and the rest of his team properly). Because of this, Sasuke is far above his team mates in strength and skill.

Preferably, Sasuke's other teammate is Sai or someone else in cannon.

Whether or not Sasuke leaves the village is optional (preferably, he stays).

**oxoxo**

One or two weeks after the Uchiha massacre, Sasuke is assigned a chunin caretaker, 14/15 year old Naruto. Things are a bit rocky at first, of course. They eventually get closer. The story is mostly about character development and the bond between Naruto and Sasuke (at least in my mind. It could be different for someone else).

**XXX**

A week or two after the Uchiha massacre.

**XXX**

Sasuke stood in the Hokage's office, stunned. A caretaker? He was going to have a caretaker?! The "caretaker" in question was an uncomfortable looking blond teen who was standing by the Hokage's desk.

"Why do I need a," he paused, shooting the blue eyed blond a look, "_babysitter_?"

The teen glared back and Sasuke swore he heard him mumble 'brat.'

The Hokage sighed. "You're only 9, Sasuke. You need someone to watch over you and take care of you, at least until you get older and able to take care of yourself." He said in a final tone. "Dismissed."

The two left the office, the blond closing the door behind them. They turned to each other.

"So, introductions. I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto gave a smile.

"Hn." Was all Sasuke said and looked away. Naruto frowned.

"I highly doubt that's your name. What's your name?"

"Don't pretend you don't already know it."

"Yeah, but it's polite to introduce yourself, right?"

Sigh. "Sasuke Uchiha."

The dobe beamed. "That's better."

**XXX**

Yeah, that sucked. Moving on!

Time skip-a few days later

**XXX**

Sasuke stepped down the stairs, fully dressed and ready to go to the Academy for the first time since the massacre. Strangely, he didn't smell or hear the dobe cooking breakfast, which was odd because Naruto was usually making breakfast around this time. The boy entered the kitchen and saw that it was empty and nothing had even been moved at all.

Just then the front door banged open, startling him. There were several thumps and clanks as something metal was put down then quick footfalls, as if someone was running. A blue/blond blur appeared and ran into the doorway with a thud.

"Hey Sasuke!" the blur, now identified as Naruto in his chunin outfit, minus the green vest, beamed at Sasuke before zooming past him, moving all over the kitchen as he tried to make a quick breakfast and some lunch for the slightly surprised Uchiha.

A few minutes later, Sasuke was sitting in front of a plate with eggs, hash browns and a biscuit with a glass of orange juice (Naruto never made anything with bacon in it; said it was bad for you) while Naruto made a bento with ornigai, tomatoes and sushi.

Sasuke silently ate his eggs as he watched Naruto move around the kitchen. A small part of him was curious and wanted to know why the dobe was out this morning but decided not to ask, for the sake of his sanity and because he really didn't care. Just as he finished eating, Naruto shoved a bento into his hands.

"Okay Sasuke, listen up. When you go to school today, expect a lot of the students and teachers to shower you with pity, kind words and fake smiles and the teachers taking it easy on you. A piece of advice: Ignore them. Just do what you always do. Oh, and by the way, I'm painting the house today. Now go, before you're late for school."

He gave the Uchiha a little nudge (ignoring the 'Glare of Death' Sasuke was sending him) before he took the dirty dishes and started to clean them. Sasuke just stared at his back before walking away. Paint? He was going to paint the house? The boy didn't know if he should be angry or happy so he went for uncaring instead. It's not like it mattered, nothing did now. At the front door Sasuke saw all the paint buckets, brushes, rollers, blue tape and tarp.

Sasuke just 'Hn'ed and walked out the door.

**XXX**

Time skip-after school

**XXX**

Sasuke walked though the empty Uchiha district, absolutely steaming on the inside. Naruto was right this morning. Everywhere he looked, people were staring at him with_ pity_! He wanted to scream at them, tell them to _stop giving him those looks_! All the teachers kept smiling at him, asking him if he was alright and such. The only one who treated him remotely normal was Iruka-sensei. The kids were torn between invading his personal space and being overly loud or keeping silent and giving him a wide berth.

The walk to and from school wasn't any better; all the adults kept giving him fake smiles and looks of pity. And when they thought he wasn't looking or couldn't hear, they would _whisper_. It was infuriating. Sasuke had never been so glad to be inside the Uchiha district.

Then he stopped and looked around. It was so silent and empty. There were no voices greeting him, not sounds of people moving in their homes or walking down the streets. There was no one there. He was alone.

Then all the blood stains seamed to pop out at him. There, on the walls, there, on the patio, there, on the windows, the chairs, the fences, everywhere! Hadn't they been cleaned, but they weren't, they were wet and dripping and they were still fresh he could smell it, it was everywhere it was all he could see and smell was red red red…(1)

"Hey Sasuke!"

Everything came back into focus. There were no blood stains anywhere, save the ones they were unable to get out of the wood and the smell of blood had vanished.

"Hey Sasuke!" the voice came again and Sasuke found himself looking into curious blue eyes. "Why are you just standing out here?" Naruto asked.

"Hn."

"Nice to see you too, brat."

**oxoxo**

Sasuke walked through the house in amazement. White. Everything was white. The hallways, the ceilings, the rooms, the doors, everything! How the hell could one person pain an entire mansion in one day?!

"Why…is everything white?" he asked the dobe behind him. _'__It better not be about my __'__mental state__'__ or something.__'_ He thought angrily.

"It's primer." Naruto replied. "You usually have to put a primer coating on before you use a colored paint. It's going to stay like this for a while, though; I spent most of my money getting paint and materials. Don't worry, I didn't paint your room or any locked(2) rooms."

"Hn."

"You need a wider vocabulary, brat."

"…dobe?"

"Yeah?"

Sasuke mentally kicked himself for what he was about to ask but he wanted to know.

"Earlier you told me to ignore all the looks and whispers and just be myself. How do you know if that works?"

Naruto didn't answer immediately, giving a pained smile. "It works. I'm got saying it's foolproof, but it works. You'll get used to it and the looks and whispers will die down eventually. Just keep your head up and ignore them."

**XXX**

Time skip – two or three weeks later

**XXX**

Sasuke entered this house, taking his shoes off at the front door. Smelling something strange, he sniffed the air. Paint. Naruto must have saved up enough money to continue his little house remaking project. He didn't see anything different though. He walked deeper into the house, looking for the newly painted room when he saw some green from the living room doorway.

He walked into the living room and all he saw was green. The whole room was painted a rich, leafy green, except for the ceiling which was a nice sky blue. The blonde painter himself was sitting in front of a wall, wearing an old and stained button up shirt and blue jeans. His back was to Sasuke, focused on something on the wall, surrounded by small paint cans.

Somehow knowing that Sasuke was there, Naruto turned to look at him. "Hey Sasuke, come look at this, I want your opinion."

Sasuke walked over to Naruto and saw what it was he was staring at. Roses. Naruto had painted roses on the wall. They weren't masterpieces but they were pretty good. None of them were the same color. There was a white one, a blue one, a purple one, a yellow one, a pink one, an orange one and a red one. Sasuke looked at the red rose, admiring it.

Suddenly, it wasn't a rose but a blood splatter and it was still wet and fresh and it was starting to drip and the smell of blood was beginning to invade his nose and-(3)

"So Sasuke," Naruto's voice broke thought his thoughts and Sasuke tore his eyes away from the rose/blood spatter, "which color do you think I should do? I want to do them all but I can only do one. My favorites are the yellow and white ones and I'm torn between the two. What do you think?"

Sasuke looked at the roses again, making sure to not look at the red one. He had to admit the yellow and white ones were good. They stood out more than the others and would probably keep the room from looking depressing. But he didn't want to see anymore white.

"The yellow one." Was all he said before heading to his room. He had homework to do.

**oxoxo**

A few hours later, after Sasuke had finished his homework and training (he made sure to train or exercise everyday) he headed to the kitchen for some dinner. He passed by the living room before he stopped and did a double take. There were yellow roses _everywhere_. There were lighter green spots too and when he looked closer, Sasuke saw that they were leaves. It made the walls look like they were made of tall rose bushes.

Looking around the room Sasuke noticed other little things as well. There were birds hiding in the leaves, butterflies on the flowers or flying around, and a few rabbits on the ground. At an even closer inspection Sasuke noticed that there were other things as well. There were ladybugs and caterpillars and lizards and all sorts of little insects. Closer to the bottom was the shadowy figure of a cat hidden in the bushes and in another spot he actually saw the white tip of a tail.

'_How,__'_ Sasuke thought, _'__how the hell was he able to do all this in only a few hours?!__'_

**XXX**

Time skip – a few months later

**XXX**

Sasuke walked into the kitchen and sat at the table as Naruto casually made breakfast. He wasn't in any hurry since it was weekend and Sasuke had nowhere he needed to be and Naruto had a day off.

While the blond cooked, Sasuke looked around the kitchen. Naruto had painted it as a field covered in some white flowers with yellow stripes that Sasuke didn't know the name of. On one side of the field were tall grasses and on the other side were distant mountains. The rest of the kitchen was painted sky blue and there were white clouds on the ceiling.

The kitchen wasn't all he painted. The many hallways of the mansion were painted various scenes. One hallway had the sunset on one side, the sealing getting darker and the darkness of night on the other side. And, of course, there was a field of flowers. Another hallway was a grove of trees, a flower/vine called wisteria clinging to some of the trees. In one of the rooms, there was a large willow tree (he thought it was a willow tree) and a lake filled with lily pads and lotuses. Another room was a fall scene. The trees were in the middle of changing colors and the ground was covered in white spider lilies (by Sasuke's request. He didn't want to see any red and Naruto complied without question). Naruto had painted most of the rooms and hallways by now, all of them nature scenes with flowers.

"Here you go."

Sasuke was brought out of his thoughts as Naruto placed a plate in front of him.

They ate in silence, well, silence on Sasuke's end, Naruto was going on about something or other. At the end of breakfast Sasuke finally spoke.

"Naruto."

Naruto looked somewhat surprised that the boy actually said something. "Yeah?"

Sasuke swallowed his pride. "Could you…paint my room?"

Naruto brightened. "Sure, have anything specific in mind?"

"Not really, but can it be a night scene? With full view of the moon and stars."

"Sure. I already have something in mind. I'll get started on it as soon as possible."

**XXX**

Time skip – a few days later

**XXX**

It had taken a few days for Naruto to save up the money he needed for the supplies. When he was ready to paint the room Naruto had Sasuke help him move all the stuff into the hallway.

After moving the last of the stuff out, Naruto turned to Sasuke.

"I don't want you coming in, alright? I want this to be a surprise."

"Hn. Whatever."

Sasuke went outside and trained for a few hours then came back in and did some homework. He idly wondered when Naruto was going to take a break and make dinner. As if he read his mind, Naruto appeared, grinning proudly.

"I'm gonna get dinner started. You're probably going to sleep in a different room tonight; I'm not finished with yours. I'm defiantly going to finish by tomorrow though."

After dinner, the two somehow came to the decision that Sasuke would sleep in Naruto's room and Naruto would sleep on the living room couch.

Looking around Naruto's room, Sasuke had to admit it was different from what he thought it would be. He expected it to be bright and sunny like the rest of the house and have lots of orange but it was surprisingly dark and plain. It was just a forest; there was nothing special about it, no exotic trees or flowers, just a regular forest. It was twilight, not the bright midday that Sasuke expected. But what had Sasuke's attention was a lone animal painted by a tree.

It was a large fox, its golden fur making it stand out from its dark backdrop. The creature sat regally by the tree, giving off an air of calm and wisdom. Its narrowed amber eyes made it look like it was thinking deeply. It was beautiful.

Sasuke had to wonder though. The people of Konoha were not fond of foxes and every October, people would go on fox hunts. Sasuke knew why, it was because of the Kyuubi attack around 14, almost 15, years ago. No one was fond of foxes; they didn't even have any in the Konoha Zoo. So why did Naruto paint one in such a good light in his room?

**XXX**

Skip-next day

**XXX**

"Alright Sasuke, ready to see your room?" Naruto grinned down at Sasuke as they stood in front of the boys closed bedroom door. Sasuke just gave his a 'can we get _on_ with it' look and 'hn'ed.

"Your enthusiasm leaves much to be desired." The blond said dryly but he still had a grin on his face as he opened the door.

Sasuke liked what he saw. It was night and a full moon was clearly seen as well as the stars. His room was a small field surrounded by trees. There was a lake in the corner reflecting the moons light. The field was full of tall grasses and cattails and everywhere in the field were yellow dots. Fireflies. It was peaceful.

"So what do you think?" Naruto said from behind him.

"Hn, not too bad." Which was Sasuke-speak for 'I like it, but I'm too proud to admit it.'

"Good!"

**XXX**

Time skip – graduation day. Sasuke is twelve now.

**XXX**

Sasuke watched as all of his classmates ran up to their parents, proudly showing off their headbands or holding their heads down to hide their shamefully bare foreheads. There was a cacophony of chatter, parents congratulating their kids, and making plans for a celebratory dinner. The children bragged about their success and made plans of what they were going to do when they started missions.

The Uchiha's eyes discreetly scanned the crowd, looking for a familiar head of stunningly blond hair. He didn't see Naruto at all and after a few minutes of looking and sill not seeing Naruto, Sasuke mentally sighed. He didn't expect Naruto to be there but a small part of him still hoped. Yesterday, Naruto had gone on a two day long mission but said that he would try to hurry so they could celebrate Sasuke's graduation.

When Naruto said that, Sasuke merely 'hn'ed in indifference but on the inside he felt warm. Though Sasuke knew he was going to pass – there was no way he couldn't – it was nice to hear Naruto say it as though it was a fact. The idea that Naruto would celebrate also made him feel warm inside, though he wouldn't admit that under torture.

Over the years, Sasuke and Naruto had become closer and Sasuke viewed the blond as an older brother of sorts. He trained and helped Sasuke as often as he could, complementing and rewarding the younger male when he did something right, before making him repeat it over and over again until Sasuke mastered it. Sasuke's family had never really done any of that. His father rarely trained him and he always compared him to Itachi. While Itachi did show him affection, playing with him from time to time, and training him every now and then, he never really had the time to devote himself to Sasuke's training and he rarely complemented him (but Sasuke supposed that was an Uchiha thing). And no one in the Uchiha clan really "celebrated" anything and if they did it was always calm and low key and somewhat formal. Even Sasuke's birthdays were somewhat formal.

At that thought, Sasuke made a noise of amusement, gaining a strange look from a nearby pedestrian. Birthdays with Naruto were anything but formal. A few weeks after Sasuke turned 10, Naruto had asked about his birthday. Sasuke said it already passed and Naruto's eyes bugged out before declaring this a problem that _must_ be fixed and bodily dragging Sasuke out of the house. Then Naruto realized that he had no clue what to do and decided to 'wing it.' There was a lot of arguing and dragging involved, as well as some running, girls, angry shop owners and a llama. By the time they got home they were tired, had some leaves in their hair, soaking wet and had some glitter on them. Even though he would never admit it, Sasuke had never had so much fun in his life.

Standing in front of his house, Sasuke pulled out his keys and unlocked the door (why did they even have locks anyway, any ninja could just pick the lock or go through the window). He was surprised when he found the door was already unlocked. That meant one of three things. One, he forgot to lock the door this morning (unlikely), two, Naruto was home, or three, someone had broken in.

Sasuke kept his hand close to his kunai pouch, seeming relaxed but on guard. He twitched and shifted into a battle stance as loud footsteps came running in his direction. Wait, they sounded kind of familiar…

Soon enough, Naruto came barreling into sight, the 19 year old jounin only wearing a mesh shirt and boxers. He had bruises and there were splotches of blood still in his hair. He had obviously just come back from his mission and hadn't even finished cleaning himself up.

"Hey Sasuke! Sorry I didn't pick you up. I just got back, like, less than thirty minutes ago. Let me get clean and then we'll go, okay?" He left as quickly as he came, his footsteps getting softer the further he went.

Sasuke smirked. The blond may be an idiot and they may argue a lot and the jounin may act like he was a child but at least it kept things interesting.

XXX

Time skip – a few months after Naruto became Sasuke's guardian. Naruto becomes Iruka's assistant teacher.

XXX

Sasuke sat in his desk, bored but enjoying the quiet. He was early, like an Uchiha should be but lately he'd been coming earlier as there would be less people to annoy/pity him. He was also early because Naruto had woken him up earlier. Naruto had been given an assignment that he had to leave early for but he wanted to make sure Sasuke was taken care of before he left. So he made sure Sasuke set his alarm to go off sooner.

When Sasuke asked what the assignment was, the blond just gave a mischievous foxy grin and said it was a secret.

Sasuke was brought out of his thoughts as the noise level in the room increased as more students started to arrive, talking about this and that. The main thing everyone was talking about, though, was who the new assistant teacher would be.

Assistant teachers were chunnins who were assigned to an academy teacher and assisted them - hence the name - and even became substitutes if the teacher was out. Most chunnins were forced to become assistant teacher whether they wanted to or not but there two reasons that Sasuke could name for doing this.

The first was that there were so many kids and only so many teachers. They needed the help. The second was that if a chunin wanted to become a jounin, he or she had to have had a minimum number of hours of assistant teaching. Sasuke guessed that it was for when a jounin became a jounin sensei; after all, they wouldn't make a jounin who was inexperienced with children the sensei of three genin.

Assistant teachers were inconsistent though, as they had other duties. Some assistant teachers may come in every other day for a few months. Some may be there for a solid week before being gone for weeks and then coming back again. Others came at random, and some don't do anything with the kids at all, only helping out with papers and such, not even subbing when the teacher was out, and forcing a different chunin to take their place. In the past, Sasuke used to hear the adults complain about it, saying they either needed to abolish the practice or make it more consistent.

Sasuke shook those thoughts away, instead checking the time. Class was about to start and all the students were here, including those loud, annoying girls, Sakura and Ino, who were now officially the leaders of his fan club, something that had started shortly after the massacre and had been steadily growing in size. Sasuke had grumbled about it (as much as an Uchiha grumbles) and Naruto scoffed, an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

"_You__'__re the last of the Great Uchiha Clan. It had been an honor to marry into the clan before and even more so now. Many of the girls__'__ parents probably want the honor of saying their little girl married The Uchiha and are pushing them onto you. The girls also pity and admire you and are starting to form crushes. They__'__re delusional.__"_

Sasuke sighed as the two idiots continued to argue over who he liked. Why couldn't they, or any of the other girls, realize that he didn't like _any_ of them? His attention turned to the door as Iruka-sensei walked in. The man looked at the chattering students before taking a deep breath. Sasuke prepared himself.

"BE QUIET AND SIT DOWN!"

There was some shuffling then silence.

Iruka smiled. "Alright. Now, to meet your new assistant teacher. Come in please."

The assistant teacher came in and Sasuke's eyes widened.

'_Oh no.__'_

The young chunnins blond hair shone brightly in the light, his clear blue eyes looking over the students and the whiskers on his cheeks stretched as he grinned widely.

"Yo! My name's Naruto Uzumaki and I hope we can get along."

Sasuke felt like banging his head against the desk.

XXX

Time skip - a few weeks to a month or so after Naruto became Sasuke's guardian. Naruto is beginning to train Sasuke.

XXX

Sasuke panted as he glared at the nicks he left on the tree. He had been at this tree walking exercise for almost all day and he wasn't even half way up! He grit his teeth and he approached the tree again, forcing chakra into his feet as he slowly walked up the tree. When he first started the exercise he ran up the tree but Naruto told him to focus on his chakra control, not running up the tree. When he felt like he was about to fall, he used his kunai to leave another nick before gravity set in and he fell to the ground, flipping around to land on his feet. He looked up at his most recent nick and mentally growled. It was worse than the last try!

"Oi, dobe!" he called over to his co called guardian who was reading a book nearby. That morning the blond told him about chakra control/tree walking, demonstrated it, then gave Sasuke a kunai and told him that they wouldn't move on from this exercise until Sasuke reached the top. Then he gave some tips and watched the 9 year old for a while before pulling out a book titled 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja.'

That was this morning. It was almost dinner time now and Sasuke hadn't even made it halfway up!

At Sasuke's voice, the teen turned away from his well worn book to look at the boy.

"Stop calling me that brat. What do you want?"

"Aren't you supposed to be helping me with this? You're just sitting there reading."

The blond sighed. "Look, I've already done all I could do. I've given you instructions and tips and you're doing the exercise correctly. How long it takes to reach the top is different for each ninja so just take your time."

"It's been a full day."

"That's good."

"How is that good?"

"The more chakra you have, the harder it is to control, and the longer it takes to get to top. It takes the average male ninja a few days to reach the top. I would have been very disappointed if you succeeded in one day." He closed his book and stood up. "Take a break as I make dinner, ok?"

"No. I want to keep going."

"No. I want to watch you to make sure you don't fall and break your neck and I can't do that while I'm making dinner."

"Yes you can. Make a kage bunshin."

"True but you've been at this all day. You need a break. And you're going to have a break even if I have to tie you up."

Sasuke chose to ignore the blond. A few minutes later he found himself bound and gagged to a kitchen chair as Naruto made dinner, humming a cheerful tune.

"Don't be so put out brat." Naruto said to the broody (sulky) Uchiha as they ate dinner. "You can continue training after you eat."

It was silent for a few moments before Sasuke spoke.

"Dobe, how long did it take you to reach the top of the tree?"

"Don't call me that brat. It took me a week and it would have taken longer (4) if my sensei hadn't been impatient and set the bottom of the tree on fire. Don't worry I won't do that to you. Maybe."

**xoxox**

Much to Sasuke's frustration but slight pride, it took 6 days (5) to complete the training. Naruto said he either had quite a lot of chakra for a 9 year old or his control just sucked that much. Sasuke showed how much he "sucked" by using the grand fireball technique to set the dobe's clothes on fire.

"Okay." The blond grumbled as he crawled out of the pond, his clothes charred and wet. "Since you have tree walking down, you can move on to the water walking. It's a bit more difficult because water is constantly moving and you have to adjust you chakra constantly. Other than that, it's the same as three walking, only instead of sticking to the water, you're repelling it. Got it? Now let's get started."

It took another week for Sasuke to master water walking and for most of the week Sasuke was more wet than dry. Naruto found it amusing, Sasuke not so much.

**XXX**

Time skip – some random time (just for fun)

**XXX**

When Sasuke came home that day, it was to complete and utter chaos.

Everything was a mess. In all the rooms, anything that could be moved or thrown around was. Clothes were strewn everywhere, furniture were on their sides, and other objects were all over the floors. Sasuke watched as dozens and dozens of Naruto's ran all over the house and basically ripping it apart, all of them repeating the same line.

"Whereisit,whereisit,whereisit WHERE. IS. IT?"

Sasuke coughed to gain someone's attention. Six Naruto's turned to look at him before they pounced.

"Sasuke, do you know where-"

"-can't find my-"

"-how am I supposed to do _anything_-"

"-looked _everywhere_-"

"-elp me find it."

Sasuke just stared at the six Naruto's that were going on and on about something but Sasuke for the life of him did not know what. He was getting annoyed really fast.

"Oi! Can you all be quiet for a second and tell me what's going on?"

The Naruto's around him finally shut up. One of them began speaking.

"Sasuke," he said in a dead serious voice, "I can't find my cookbook."

…What?

Sasuke blinked, his mind blank. A cookbook? Naruto was freaking out over a cookbook?

"A…cookbook?"

"This is serious Sasuke! I can't cook without it! I've tried it before and even though I remembered the directions exactly it turned out horrible! I need it!"

"You need it so bad that you're willing to tear the house down? You better not have broken anything."

"Don't worry I haven't broken a thing."

_**CRASH**_

The Naruto's chuckled nervously. "Well, except for that _one_ thing."

Sasuke sighed and he walked into the kitchen, reached over the counter and picked up Naruto's cookbook that Sasuke had placed by the wall that morning. Dozens of blue eyes blinked.

"Oh. Thanks Sasuke."

"Sure. I'm going to be outside training. I refuse to help you clean up your mess."

And so Sasuke went outside to train and do his homework, Naruto and his mini-army of clones cleaned the house and for dinner Naruto dragged Sasuke to Ichiraku's, completely defeating the point of looking for his cookbook in the first place.

(1) It's all mental. He's still a bit stressed and his day at the academy probably didn't help.

(2) Itachi's and his parents rooms.

(3) Yes, he had another mental breakdown. Think about it, he saw his parents and family murdered and then his brother made him relive the experience over and over again. He's only 9, of course he's going to have episodes like this. He does get better though.

(4) Naruto didn't have Sasuke to compete with so he didn't have someone to push him to try harder. You can decide who his sensei was.

(5) Sasuke is 9 not 12. He doesn't have as much chakra as his 12 year old self but he probably doesn't have as much control either.

Side note – Naruto calls Sasuke 'brat' instead of 'teme.' He does this for two reasons – 1) Naruto doesn't want to be a bad influence and swear around a kid. I know that 'teme' is also a crude way to say 'you' but we all know what Naruto really means when he says that. 2) Age difference. In cannon Naruto and Sasuke are peers so Naruto sees Sasuke as a bastard. Here, there is a 6-7 year difference between them and older Naruto sees Sasuke's bastard behavior as bratty behavior.


End file.
